Monday, December 26, 2016

I was recently honored with an invitation from the Merrimack Institute for New Teacher Support (MINTS) at Merrimack College in New Andover, Massachusetts, to be one of the keynote speakers at the launch of their new program--one that is designed to offer extensive layers of practical support to new and novice teachers in the area. The program is certain to be a success--mostly because of the insightful people who are its chief creators and their visionary approach to what new teachers need to succeed and the best ways to provide that support. For my part of the launch event, I chose to speak about the many different choices that we educators can make to empower ourselves. Here are my notes. ~Julia

No one is a natural born teacher.
No matter how easy some teachers make it seem as they arrange their students into
well-behaved little lines on the way to the cafeteria or have their students
conduct experiments in chemistry class without blowing up anything or hush an entire
middle school class with just a teacher look, those teachers were not born able
to perform those educational miracles. No. They write their lesson plans one
word at a time just like the rest of us.

When I was first a teacher, I was
completely intimated by other teachers. They seemed to know exactly what to do
all the time. Their handouts looked professional. They never misplaced their room
keys. They had taught all their students’ siblings and sometimes even their
parents. And their classroom management? While I could barely get my students
to sit down and stop poking each other, their students were models of perfect
behavior. It was awe-inspiring and very discouraging all at the same time.

It took me years to realize that
those accomplished teachers were not born with those skills. Instead they developed
over time from new teachers full of dreams and mistakes into dedicated
professionals. They had learned the secret of being great teachers.

What great teachers have figured
out is that teaching is a series of deliberate choices that has a profound
effect over time. Great teachers don’t wait for some mysterious outside force
to make them into the kind of educators they want to be. Instead, they make
deliberate choices to empower themselves.

You can, too. Those deliberate
choices are ones that are open to all of us.

Here’s how.

The first deliberate choice you can
make right away is to EMBRACE professional growth. Notice that I did not just say
“professional growth” but to EMBRACE professional growth.

Professional growth does not happen
by accident. Great teachers don’t just passively say they are lifelong learners
and then move on, instead they fully embrace the opportunities in each school
day to become a student—to learn more about their subject matter, about
pedagogy, and, most of all, to learn everything they can learn about their
students. Great teachers even embrace the growth that comes from making
mistakes. And there are plenty of opportunities in our profession to learn from
your mistakes! Professional development is a way of life for a great teacher.
So, if you are going to become the kind of teacher that you want to be, make
professional growth a part of your everyday life. There are so many ways to do
this…

·Ask other teachers to allow you to observe them.

·And ask them to observe you. Just a ten-minute
snapshot observation can give you a new idea, a new strategy… or an ah-ha
moment.

·Or, you can video record yourself. It’s not always
pleasant, but watching yourself teach is a good way to get rid of all of those bad
teacher mannerisms that your students probably notice.

·Read professional literature online and in
books.

·Join the thousands of other teachers on Twitter
to create your own PLN or Professional Learning Network.

·Set up a Pinterest board to store all sorts of
great ideas and lesson plans that generous teachers across the globe have
shared for you to use.

·Seek feedback from your students—after all, they
know more than anyone how well you are doing. Ask them to evaluate your
lessons.

·Join professional organizations and, if you get
a chance, attend a conference.

We are here tonight to launch an
exciting new program—one with far-reaching benefits that will not only impact
the various communities represented here, but also its impact will echo
throughout the years---just as it always does when caring teachers come
together to support each other and to learn together. I can’t tell you enough
how lucky you are to have this opportunity. If your plan is to become a great
teacher and to EMBRACE professional growth, then the MINTS program is a
terrific resource for you. Make a deliberate choice to take advantage of all
the opportunities that this program will bring you.

Seek growth. Make it happen. Take charge of
your professional life. If you see EMBRACING professional growth as a helpful attitude,
a way of life for a teacher, then you are already on the path to becoming one
of those great teachers we all admire. Remember: great teachers empower
themselves when they embrace professional growth

Another deliberate choice that can empower
your teaching career is to set your own professional goals and then work toward
them. I don’t mean those benchmarks imposed on us by our school districts, but
rather the kind of professional goals that are meaningful only to you. I have
found that when I set a goal for myself, I tend to focus on it until I master
it. I know, I know, this is what everyone who sets a goal does, but it is an
incredibly effective way to improve your teaching skills. For example, when I
was a novice teacher, one of my goals was to improve the way I handled class
discussions. I worked on that goal all year. I researched and observed others
and thought about what was happening when my students were holding a discussion.
Just think about what that action research did for me as a beginning teacher—I
focused my energy on something more important than just making it through
another day at school.

It required me to reflect on what
my students were doing, what I wanted them to do, on what I was doing that was
right, and what I was doing that was wrong. The focus provided by such a
personal goal was invaluable to me then, and it still is today. And you know
what, unlike those goals that are imposed on us, there was no tedious paperwork
to contend with. No one knew my progress but me…and a roomful of students. This
is how important setting professional goals has been to me: You can almost
trace the ups and downs in my long career by some of my goals.

When I was teaching in a tough
inner city school, one of my goals was to decide how strict I should be. I had
to determine the boundaries of good behavior and how to withstand the testing,
testing, testing of those boundaries by students who were used to intimidating
teachers. I learned a great deal that year. For one thing, I learned it’s okay
to be a strict teacher. I also learned that even the toughest kids are more
comfortable when they know that the boundaries are fair and immutable.

When I was teaching in a middle
school one of my goals was to learn how to settle my students to work quickly.
I actually set little time goals for myself and tried to streamline the start
of class so that they would settle right away.

By the way, I have the deepest respect
for middle school teachers. They deserve a huge pay raise RIGHT NOW because
they deal with hair-raising classroom situations that the rest of us don’t even
want to imagine.

Because I am an English teacher,
one perennial goal is this: How can I grade papers quickly and still have
students learn from their mistakes as well as how to repeat what they did
right? I hate grading papers. I mean it. I really, really hate grading papers. Learning
to grade papers to maximize student value and minimize my tedium was
definitely a good use of my time.

So you see, setting professional
goals for yourself gives you direction. I try to have about three goals a year,
except for this year. I tend to focus more on classroom management and general
pedagogy rather than on specific content. I tape my goals to my desk. And in my
plan book. And on a file cabinet facing my desk. And on my calendar. I am serious about goals.

Goals allow you to move forward. To
focus on improving instead of just coping. They add intentionality to your
practice. And, they allow you to self-assess and reflect on what you do as a
teacher. What a powerful and very personal way to grow as an educator. As far
as deliberate choices go, setting professional goals is something that I know
that all great teachers must do.

And for my goals this year? Because
this is my last year as a teacher—my fortieth year--, I have set only one goal
for myself this year. Here it is: I want my students to have the BEST. YEAR. EVER.
Which, if you think about it, is a pretty terrific goal.

Can you imagine the power in making
that deliberate choice for your teaching practice? Instead of having a
short-time soon to be retired teacher attitude, every day I am figuring out how
to make class meaningful, relevant, engaging. This is probably one the best goals
I’ve ever had. Feel free to adopt it as your own. Making a deliberate choice to
create your own professional goals is a positive step in empowering yourself to
become the great teacher that you want to be.

A third way that great teachers
empower themselves is by connecting with other educators. In the not so distant
past, teachers were not expected to work together other than to attend occasional
meetings. If you were an experienced teacher, this working environment was
okay, but if you were a beginning teacher, it was a terrible way to go to
school.No one was expected to help you.
No mentors. No official ways to get advice. If you were lucky, a kind-hearted
colleague would help you out. Today, however, that has changed. Today’s schools
are composed of intersecting communities of practice with one goal: successful
students. It is easy to connect with other teachers who are in your building,
your district, and through the internet, across the globe.If you are a new teacher, and even if you are
not, it is up to you to choose to make the most of these opportunities. Seek a
variety of mentors. Ask questions. Join study groups. Participate in the MINTS
program. Reach out. Ask for help. Share ideas.

One way to share ideas and seek
advice that I have recently been involved with is something I started at my
school called a Community within a Community. Since I also work with the new
teachers at my school, I want to touch base with them every day—adding yet
another layer of support. Several years ago, I started a simple email group
where we could contact each other easily. Every day, as curator of the group, I
send out a quick message, a link, a meme, a reminder of a school event, or I
ask for opinions and advice.

The response was overwhelming. Our
simple little group grew into a schoolwide group where we share ideas—a digital
teachers’ lounge. No longer just an email group for new teachers, our Community
within a Community consists of experienced and beginning teachers all sharing
ideas and supporting each other in a wide variety of ways. Our only caveats:
every post much be about educational topics, must be of interest to the entire
group, must be professional in tone and content, and must be supportive of the
members of the group.

You can, with just a few clicks of
a keyboard, create a similar group for yourself—building your own Community
within a Community. The overlapping circles of collaboration that make up a school
will allow you to grow and develop as a teacher confident that you are making
sound decisions because you have had the opportunity to consult others.

Great teachers empower themselves when
they choose to connect.

One of the easiest ways to empower
yourself on the path to being a great teacher is to deliberately choose to
master the practical responsibilities of your career. Well-organized, efficient
teachers don’t have to spend time racing around at the last minute making
copies or finding resources. Instead, they can focus on what’s important—their
students. Successfully managing the practical aspects of running a
class—passing out papers, collecting lunch money, taking attendance, and getting
papers graded and returned—all those sorts of things can make the difference
between a good day and a bad day at school. I have been asked many times what
inspired me to write The First-Year
Teacher’s Survival Guide.

Other than admitting that I was
probably the worst first year teacher to ever step foot in a classroom, and oh
my goodness, I was so naïve. I had a solid knowledge of my subject matter—I
could quote Shakespeare for hours and diagram just about any sentence written
in English—but I had no idea at all how to manage a classroom. I did not even
know how to take attendance or how to set up a gradebook, much less any of the
more advanced stuff like making a seating chart.To my credit, I learned quickly to take good
advice when it was offered to me.

But, it was not my own ineptitude
that inspired my book for first year teachers, however. I had just been offered
a second book contract to follow up my discipline book and was trying to decide
what I wanted to write about. Early one morning, as I was waiting at the copy
machine, I noticed a first-year teacher taking her time slowly and carefully
cutting and taping her documents while standing at the copy machine. She was
completely unaware that a long line of furious teachers who also had to make
copies before class began was forming. That was when it dawned on me that lots
of the problems that first-year teachers have come about because they do not have
a grasp of the practical workplace skills that they need just to manage a
classroom. So, even though it may seem mundane, learning to be an efficient,
well-organized worker is one of the most significant deliberate choices that
great teachers make because it frees them to do what is important. Here is what
I have noticed that great teachers do to make the practical aspects of our jobs
more manageable:

·They leave their desks clean at the end of the
day more often than not.

·They automate tasks such as returning graded
papers or passing out materials so that students can manage them.

·Because students need a clean, comfortable,
well-organized space in which to work, they teach students to clean up their
work areas and to put things away.

·They use every single second of their plan
periods for school tasks.

·They plan instruction in terms of the year, the
semester, units, and daily plans. No great teacher ever says, “I’m staying one
day ahead of my students.”

·They make to-do lists and work calendars and use
them.

·They have a routine and a place for everything.

·They make productivity one of their priorities.

·They…well, you get the idea. Organizational
schemes of various types can transform your classroom. I think you would be
hard pressed to find a great teacher who is also a disorganized lummox.

Another deliberate choice that
great teachers make to empower themselves is to take a proactive stance to
discipline problems. It’s no coincidence that many teachers at all levels of teaching
experience cite discipline issues as a significant factor in the dissatisfaction
they feel with their careers. In my own work with new teachers, I have noticed
that beginning teachers and preservice teachers almost always tell me that
their biggest fear is not being able to control their classes.

Let me tell you right now: you
don’t have to be afraid of this. Instead, be proactive. Face those fears and
make good things happen in your classroom! Making a deliberate choice to adopt
a preventative approach to classroom management can certainly transform your teaching
practice.

No teacher wants to deal with rude,
out-of-control students who make learning impossible for everyone around them.
Even if you don’t have to deal with severe discipline issues, the constant
petty disruptions such as reminding students to stay on task can convert into
hours of lost instruction time for the other students in the class as well as
for the misbehaving ones.

By making the decision to proactively
manage potential discipline problems, you will be able to avoid dealing with
the unpleasant aftermath caused by problems that can become unmanageable. Believe
me, it is no fun to have to ask yourself, “Well, now what do I do?” as you
drive home from a long and probably unhappy day at school. And honestly, if you
doubt the veracity of this approach, listen carefully. If I can do this, so can
you. I could not intimidate baby bunny rabbit, yet I do have an orderly
classroom—one that I work at maintaining every day.

Here's how I do it.

First of all, I try to think
about the things that could cause misbehavior in my class. I constantly ask
myself, “What could go wrong?”Why?
Unfortunately, experience has taught me that if something can go wrong, it
will. When I plan lessons, I think about back up plans. When I arrange an
activity, I consider safety, noise levels, student interactions, and all sorts
of other factors. What is important is that I constantly work to prevent things
from going wrong.

I also try to understand the
forces that create my students’ misbehaviors. I try to look beyond the
misbehavior to consider the reasons for it. This approach allows me to work
toward a solution and not get stuck in the blame phase of a discipline
incident. Also, just think about this. Even the biggest troublemaker in your class
does not always come to school with
the sole intention of making your life miserable. Students are complex beings
with complex reasons for acting the way they do. Many of the reasons that
students misbehave are ones that easy to manage once you are aware of the
underlying causes and can deal with those causes instead of just reacting to
the misbehavior. If you are going to be able to prevent or minimize discipline
problems, you must be aware of the causes for those problems

Third, I also operate on the
belief that, of course, my students will do what I ask them to do. I am
steadfast in my expectations. I am calm about this. I make it clear that I have
thought carefully about what I am asking them to do, that it is a reasonable
request, and that I expect students to behave correctly. Just think what a gift
this is to students with a history of misbehavior. They have a teacher who does
not focus on their past mistakes. Instead they have a teacher who simply
expects the best from them. If you
expect good behavior all the time, (and if you work to prevent bad behavior)
then you are highly likely to get it.

Finally, I maintain an
orderly classroom with an important attitude—one that I cannot stress enough: I put my students first. When I am in class, I
am to use a nifty expression, “where my feet are.” My students have my
undivided attention. We all can experience legitimate distractions time
to time—an illness in our families or our own fatigue, for example. However,
those teachers who are so distracted that they do not fully attend to their
students will have to deal with many more discipline problems than those
teachers who are focused on classroom activity. Students should always come
first when they are in the room with you.

Making a deliberate decision to
empower yourself by taking a proactive stance toward classroom management and
the prevention of misbehavior is one of the most productive decisions that you
can make as a classroom teacher.

Another deliberate choice that can
empower your teaching practice is to allow professionalism to be the
cornerstone of your career. I think that we can all agree that one of the chief
hallmarks of a great teacher is a pervasive sense of professionalism. Great teachers
make a deliberate choice to wear their professionalism like a badge of
honor—which of course it is. Professionalism means being the very best
teacher that you can be every day. When you choose to conduct yourself in a
professional manner, you send the message that you are in control of your
classroom and yourself.

Although it is not always easy to be
an educator, especially when you are just starting out, resolving to be as
professional as possible is a sound decision with far-reaching effects. By
behaving in a professional manner, you will earn the respect of your students,
their families, and your colleagues. You will be able to enjoy your school days
instead of struggling with the unpleasant consequences brought about by poor
decisions.

If you want to be highly regarded as
an educator, keep in mind that such regard does not just happen. Choosing to
act in a professional manner is a deliberate choice made by every excellent
teacher.

So how do you go about doing this?
Well, one effective way is to spend time reflecting on what you want your
students to say about you this year and in the future. Great teachers do this.
They have created a professional persona that seems to permeate almost everything
that they do at school: their dress, their ability to listen more than they
speak, their deep content knowledge, the respectful way they treat every staff
member, the positive relationships they develop with students, and their pride
in their profession.

When I was a beginning teacher, a
veteran teacher told me something that, while it made sense, absolutely
terrified me. He said, “You need to remember that everything you say today will
be repeated over dinner tables across town tonight.” What great advice. It
forced me to think about how I was presenting myself to my classes. Did they
see me as a good role model? An adult worthy of respect?

I began then to create my teacher
persona. I decided that I wanted my students to think of me as fair, approachable,
knowledgeable, reasonable, and determined not to let them down. I began to hold
myself to high professional standards. And I have noticed that the great
teachers I have met along the way have done the same.

All teachers have a classroom
persona—some better than others, but the difference is that great teachers
thoughtfully and deliberately create a professional image and then work hard to
live up to it. They set high standards for themselves and then work every day
to meet those standards. Great teachers empower themselves when they choose to
allow professionalism to be the cornerstone of their career.

And finally, probably the most
significant way that great teachers empower themselves is by choosing to
accept their students just as they are. Like so many of my colleagues, I became
a teacher because I loved the subject matter I had studied in college. What is
far more telling about those of us who are lucky enough to be experienced
teachers, however, is why we choose to remain in such a highly-criticized,
intense, often-stressful profession.

The reason is simple: children. It
is fun and frustrating and fulfilling to work with children—from adorable
preschool darlings to one-foot-out-the door seniors—they are all worth our
trouble. I know that we are in the business of change—after all, isn’t that the
purpose of an education—to effect change? But, I have found that we succeed
best with students when we fully accept them for the complicated, intriguing
people that they are. And, if you think about this, isn’t this really what
differentiated instruction is all about? And IEPs? And 504 plans? And probably
a whole host of other alphabets that all come down to one factor: students are
individuals. Living, breathing, individuals who are worthy of their teacher’s
time, effort, and love.

Great teachers know this: Education works best when teachers
accept children as they are-with quirks, weaknesses, and strengths. Once
students know that you care about them. That you appreciate them. That you take
pleasure in their company. Then the real magic of education begins to happen.
Instead of wasting time wishing that students could read better, write better,
sit still, pay attention, or whatever else impairs their ability to succeed in
school, great teachers accept their students and then work to move them forward
to academic and behavioral success.

That means, too, that great
teachers take full responsibility for what happens in their classrooms. Just
think about the implications of what it really means to accept responsibility
for your classroom. Instead of blaming poor parenting, or social media, or
reality tv, or society or other teachers…great teachers teach. They get on with
instruction. They look at the students
in front of them and TEACH. No excuses. No blaming. No whining. They teach.

Making a deliberate choice to
accept and appreciate our students for the complex individuals that they are is
a crucial step that great teachers make in accepting responsibility for their
classrooms. Instead of wasting time wishing for the impossible, great teachers
teach.

At the beginning of my presentation
I said that there are no natural born teachers. I mean that. We are gathered
here tonight to launch the MINTS program which, by its very nature, contains the
deliberate choices made by great teachers everywhere to empower themselves. How
fortunate you are to be a part of this wonderful resource.

When you decide become a teacher,
you enter a very special universe. Our jobs are about far more important things
than just the content we teach.

Just think of what it is that we
REALLY get to do. We light a path for the students in our care. I like to think
of myself as a missionary from the adult world who helps young people learn how
to navigate life. To be kind. To be successful. To accomplish dreams. To be a good citizen.

Research shows over and over again
that the single most significant factor in a child’s school success is a
classroom teacher.

What a responsibility. What a
burden. What a privilege.

Just think of what that research means.
It is a classroom teacher who teaches a child to read, to do math, to cooperate
with others, to write sentences, to think analytically, to do neat work, to
solve problems.

It is a classroom teacher who
protects a child from bullies and who is the first line of defense in
the battle against racism, ignorance, and poverty.

There is one last way that great
teachers empower themselves. They have an unshakeable belief that what we do
MATTERS. That what we do makes a difference. That every day we shape the future
one classroom at a time.